Belated Bosnia Cease-Fire Takes Effect

A countrywide cease-fire brokered by the United States began early this morning in Bosnia, a tenuous but essential step toward finding a permanent settlement to the 3 1/2-year war here.

The truce took effect just after midnight, two days later than originally scheduled but within the time frame international mediators had said was necessary for peace talks to move ahead. Representatives of the warring sides are scheduled to meet in the United States on Oct. 31.

U.N. officials, who are charged with monitoring the cease-fire, said it was too early to know if the 1,000-mile front line was quiet, particularly since fighting is usually less intense at night and it could take hours before soldiers in the trenches get word.

But U.N. officials and Western diplomats expressed optimism that the truce will be more successful than 35 previous ones, largely because of the high-profile U.S. role in getting both sides to lay down their arms for the next 60 days.

“It is my earnest hope that today we have witnessed a significant and possibly historic step along the road toward a peace settlement of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said U.N. official Antonio Pedauye, who announced the start of the cease-fire in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.

If the truce’s bloody prelude here in northwest Bosnia was any indication, however, it appears that neither side is in a conciliatory mood or any closer to resolving fundamental differences that have blocked past peace attempts.

The opening hours of the cease-fire carried the bitter aftertaste of Wednesday’s brutal events, the culmination of days of stepped-up killing that followed President Clinton’s announcement last week that a suspension of hostilities was in the works.

“The international community is trying to do something good, but they don’t understand what it is like to live here,” said Bosnian army commander Nedim Hujic. “We have to be ready to fight.”

Fierce battles and reports of violent “ethnic cleansing” continued unabated Wednesday as government and rebel leaders worked out final details of the truce agreement, which, officially, was held up by a dispute over restoring utilities to Sarajevo.

Bosnian Serb leaders said the Bosnian government’s postponement--twice in two days--of the scheduled cease-fire was more likely a delaying tactic while the Bosnian army forged ahead into Serb-held territory.

“Muslims and Croats are buying another day for a very well-planned and horrid action which was carried out . . . in Mrkonjic Grad and Sanski Most,” rebel leader Nikola Koljevic said on Bosnian Serb TV.

Government forces on Tuesday gained control of those two towns, allowing them to form a corridor from Sarajevo and central Bosnia to the northwest.

Some U.N. officials and military observers concurred with the assessment, saying the Bosnian government was reluctant to stop fighting just as it was achieving significant battlefield successes.

“The first night the question was the gas issue, then the second night [electricity] came back into the melting pot,” said U.N. spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Vernon. “It makes you wonder about [the government’s] willingness to sign an agreement quickly.”

Military leaders on both sides said they would honor directives issued Wednesday night by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to lay down their arms. But there was widespread skepticism that the truce will hold very long.

The first stumbling block could come as early as this morning, when Muslim, Croatian and Serbian military leaders meet with U.N. officials at Sarajevo’s airport to map out cease-fire lines and agree upon procedures to monitor compliance.

The front lines have been pushed back and forth countless times over the past few weeks, making their exact location a matter of dispute. Some of the biggest problems are around strategically important towns near the Serbian stronghold of Banja Luka, where recent fighting and “ethnic cleansing” have been concentrated.

Advances by Bosnian government, Bosnian Croat and Croatian army troops in the area, including the capture of Sanski Most and Mrkonjic Grad, have set off a panicked exodus of about 40,000 Serbian refugees, according to humanitarian relief workers.

A U.N. spokesman in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, said there were also unconfirmed reports from the Bosnian army that it had taken the Serb-held town of Bosanski Novi on Bosnia’s northern border with Croatia. Control of the town is vital for rail and communication links between Zagreb and Bihac and was also a key goal of the recent offensive.

The Bosnian Serbs, in turn, moved to accelerate efforts to “ethnically cleanse” territory under their control, expelling an estimated 10,000 Muslims and Croats over the past few days and executing untold others, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

“A four-member family and two other people were murdered when the family was slow to understand the instructions to leave their house,” said Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency. “The two other men were trying to explain to the family what was going on. All of them were shot by Bosnian Serb soldiers.”

With the truce under way, verifying violations--including such killings--could be troublesome. In addition to freezing battlefield positions, the cease-fire agreement requires the humane treatment of civilians and prisoners, a tall order in a war that has been waged in large part against noncombatants.

Preliminary plans call for the Muslim-Croat alliance and the Bosnian Serb rebels to report transgressions to the United Nations, which would then attempt to confirm the reports. The verification system has been used in previous cease-fires, but U.N. officials said the plan relies heavily on the goodwill of both sides--something that has yet to be demonstrated this time around.

“There are still details that have to be worked out on the ground,” said U.N. spokesman Rida Ettarashany. “It is clear this will only work if the two sides are sincere about getting this done.”

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Sarajevo contributed to this report.